Canelo Alvarez Refiles Lawsuit Against Golden Boy Promotions, DAZN, Report Says

Canelo Alvarez has refiled his lawsuit against DAZN, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions.

Jake Donovan of Boxing Scene reported that Alvarez brought a 23-page, multimillion-dollar lawsuit to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, accusing the promotions company and the sports streaming service of breach of contract, among others. He made subtle but key modifications after the first filing was dismissed without prejudice by the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California earlier this month, per the report.

An earlier account bared that Alvarez lost the lawsuit in the first form after the boxing star’s legal team reportedly failed to make a proper designation with regards to the defendants.

The Athletic's Mike Coppinger earlier reported, citing unnamed sources, that DAZN and Golden Boy tried to make amends and settle their differences with Alvarez over the disputed five-year, 11-fight deal worth $365 million signed by the boxing star in October 2018.

Alvarez was said to have joined De La Hoya, DAZN chief operating officer Ed McCarthy and legal teams of all three parties in a meeting that lasted for 10 hours on Sept. 22. Coppinger reported Alvarez was offered new terms that guaranteed $20 million per fight and a bonus tied to the number of DAZN subscribers each event generates.

But it seemed Alvarez was not sold on the modified terms as he took the battle back to the court just in time for the set deadline.

“The behavior and breaches of Golden Boy Promotions and DOES cannot simply be cast onto DAZN’s failure to pay its license fee,” Alvarez’s legal team said. “In the Alvarez Contract Golden Boy Promotions and De La Hoya personally committed to make the guaranteed payments. After DAZN announced it would breach its obligations to pay the license fee, Alvarez accommodated Golden Boy with several weeks to find an alternative means of broadcasting his bouts and paying his guarantee.

“Golden Boy Promotions failed to present a single plan thereafter. Moreover, Golden Boy Promotions have breached the Alvarez Contract by violating the confidentially provisions and leaking contract detail to the media for the purpose of bringing additional attention and prestige to Golden Boy Promotions.”

Alvarez is seeking at least $280 million in damages, exclusive of the relief for punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, cost of the lawsuit and more.

The 30-year-old pound-for-pound superstar has not fought since stopping WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in 11 rounds in November 2019. No thanks to the pandemic, plans for Alvarez’s next fight had been spoiled, triggering the dispute.

At the time of the first filing, Alvarez justified his move and said that the lawsuit is his desperate way in order to finally make a return inside the ring.